Killer Klowns From Outer Space: The Game

Killer Klowns From Outer Space: The Game, which is adapted from the baffling movie that I was only introduced to last year, keeps the energy of the film while distilling it into an asymmetric multiplayer game. A crew (krew?) of three clowns are tasked with hunting down seven humans on a pretty large map, turning them into these bulbous cotton candy cocoons, and suspending them from hooks. When you’ve played one of these games (like Dead by Daylight), you kind of get the conceit of the others. Where Killer Klowns stood apart was in its production values and polish, as well as how uniquely empowered both sides felt this time around. Many of these games thrive on the power imbalance presented by the predator-prey relationship, but when playing as a clown, the humans’ ability to strike me down a number of times suggested they weren’t as weak as other games would posit. As for the clowns, let’s just say that I was able to become a pizza box, run around, and uppercut people, which is at the top of my hierarchy of needs. And that was only one of the clown abilities I got to use, which apparently include wacky executions from the movie. If it can continue capturing the ludicrous nature of the source material (please let me use popcorn that turns into little killer klown pets), then I think this could be the asymmetric multiplayer game that finally pulls me in when it launches in June. — Moises Taveras